Football and emotional eating

Are sports fans more prone to bad eating after their team loses? As the 2013 NFL season begins, a new Medical News Today study, indicates fans eat better when their football team wins and worse when it loses. However the study indicates that through the incorporation of self-affirmation, fans can avoid the junk food temptation when their beloved team suffers defeat.

European researchers collected data that showed on Mondays following a Sunday game, fans ate nearly 16% more saturated fat than usual when their football team lost. It was more significant if the city’s NFL team lost by a narrow margin or the defeat was unexpected. Conversely fans would consume approximately 9% less saturated fat than usual on Monday if their team won the day before.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the practice of consuming large quantities of food, usually “comfort” or junk foods can be used as a way to suppress or soothe a variety of negative emotions, such as stress, anger, fear, boredom, sadness and loneliness. This ‘emotional eating’ can be triggered by both major life events as well as the usual hassles of daily life rather than in response to feelings instead of hunger. Experts estimate that 75% of overeating is caused by emotions.

The researchers suggest that in the case of sports, fans can take the team loss as a “personal defeat”, as a threat to their self-esteem and are more likely to use eating as a method of coping. On the other hand, fans of the winning team get a morale boost — and so may opt for healthier food.

Through a process of self-affirmation sports fans can experience a restoration of self to minimize the sense of personal defeat that can impact self–esteem and unhealthy soothing behaviors. When all participants were shown photos of healthy and not-so-healthy foods, those that had practiced ’ self-affirmation’ writing about a positive core value in their life — such as their relationships with their family or friends, they were more inclined to eat the healthier foods no matter which video they watched. The researchers believe this demonstrates that through the process of self affirmation a a restoration of self can occur for the fan who feels a sense of personal defeat when their favorite team loses.

Learn from setbacks. If an episode of emotional eating occurs, forgive yourself and start fresh the next day. Try to learn from the experience and make a plan for how you can prevent it in the future. Give yourself credit for the positive changes you are making that’ll lead to better health. — Joyce Hyde, Executive Director, Valley Sports Center